Yemeni theater will not rise without efforts of dramatists themselves, says Culture Minster

Sana’a hosted a collection of cultural activities related to theater this week to mark the occasion of World Theater Day, March 27. The day’s events started when the Ministry of Culture launched last Sunday March 29 in the Cultural Center the theater week.

At the ceremony, Minister of Culture Dr. Mohammed Abu-Bakr al-Maflhi started his speech by calling for redoubled efforts of the Yemeni dramatists, saying, "Yemeni theater will not rise without efforts of dramatists themselves.”

He stressed that the Yemeni theater is still living in crisis, despite the efforts made over the past years try to create public theater in Yemen. He called on starting a new theatrical era in Yemen, carrying a message of faith based on theater and intensive training and deep thinking, plus all efforts to develop public confidence, al so theater could become a key component of the Yemeni cultural life.

The ceremony was attended by the Deputy of Culture Minister, Dr. Ahmed Salim al- Qadhi and the Undersecretary of the Ministry for the Arts and Theater sector, Najeeba Haddad, plus a number of Yemeni dramatists.

A documentary was displayed that showed the problems and reasons for absence of Yemeni theater from the stage, the Yemeni economic situation, the lack of theater infrastructure, and even the absence of the audiences' theater and other reasons, which ignored the role of theater in Yemen.

Next, a play "On the edge of the abyss “ directed by Nargis Abass, dealt with cases of terrorism, extremism and deviant ideas, and the culture of death from which many people suffer.

The theater director general in the Ministry of Culture, Abdul-Hakim al-Hajj said to Saba News Agency that the theater days will continue for ten days to present plays every evening offers multiplicity of ideas that address a lot of issues, some of it taken from famous plays and the other from Yemen reality such as revenge, early marriage, street children, and terrorism. Noting that most of those plays, presented by teams from different governates such as Aden, Al-Baidha'a, Shabwa, Amran, and Sana'a. 

The program concluded by celebrating the Day of the World Theater honoring thirty of the leading Yemeni dramatists and theatrical work.

For the same occasion, the Al-Afif Cultural Foundation organized last Thursday April 2, a play performed at the Culture Center. The play which titled " Sunbla' story" directed by the young Emad al-Harazi and supervised by the technical director Insaf al-Alawi. The play wrote by the dramatist Shawqi Asaad and played the starring roles young artists Rahf Mohammed, Abdulaziz al-Badani and Marwah Khaled.

The cultural activities’ head at the Al-Afif Culture Foundation, Mr. Ahmed al-Sharabi said that the play presented two serious conflicts; the first, between the past and the present, through its heroes Gheith and Sunbla; the second presented internal memory.

He added that presenting such plays emphasize the importance of cultural institutions' participation in promoting the Yemeni theatrical movement, and called on the Ministry of Culture to support such attempts to find a strong and real theatrical movement.  

He pointed that the performance after the first stage presented will be at the stage on the al-Afif Cultural Foundation, thanking the Ministry of Culture to cooperate in production this work. 

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